


Collision

by dragonesdepapel



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, and adrien tries to stop punches with his body, in which marinette is just trying to do her job
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:50:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6184900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/pseuds/dragonesdepapel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette is trapped along with her class. She can't transform but it should be ok, right? Chat Noir will get there in no time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collision

Her day had started normal enough. Marinette had woken up late, raced to school, had class. Then an akuma appeared while they were at gym class and things got complicated.

To be fair, this time it hadn’t been exclusively Chloé’s fault, everyone had been partially to blame. They had been in the school gym and no-one had been paying attention to their teacher. It hadn’t been on purpose, they just had been distracted. There had been a rumor going around about a surprise physics test and everyone had wanted to know the details.

It certainly hadn’t helped that they had a substitute teacher that day. The class didn’t know it but she had been having trouble maintaining discipline all day. Before they realized what was happening, the teacher had stormed out past the big glass door at the left side of the court. The teens had barely had time to look at each other in confusion before she came back, this time clad in a colorful suit that clearly marked her as being possessed by an akuma.

And that was how Marinette found herself locked in her school gym along with the rest of her class, with no means of escape and without any kind of magical powers to help them.

Marinette took a quick look around, trying to find something to work with. The akuma had made sure to lock the door and her classmates had already tried to open it without succeed. The gym had a rectangle shape, most of it occupied by a multipurpose court. The only thing in the room was a large locker that was used as a storage for sports supplies and wooden bleachers that ran along the left side of the court.

The class had instinctively bunched together near the back of the room, right were their half of the court ended.

As it turns out, the akuma wanted to play dodgeball. It should be easy enough, right? After all, it was an all-time favorite game at the school.

There wasn’t much that Marinette could do before Chat Noir arrived at the scene, but she was determined to do her best. She had to make sure that everyone was as safe as possible until her partner could get to them.

“Everyone, spread out!” Marinette shouted. “We are an easy target like this.”

They took her advice and ran to put some distance between them. They had just a few seconds to get to their places before the akuma made the first ball appear in her hand and started throwing.

Up until that moment, Marinette had dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, this would just be a regular game of dodgeball with the addition of a very angry, magically controlled teacher. They would have to run and jump around for a bit while they waited for someone to rescue them.

Then the ball flew through the room with impossible force and her hopes were smashed against the wall along with it.

The next minutes passed in a blur. She moved around the room almost mechanically, avoiding the projectiles while looking out for her friends and trying to come up with a strategy. Everyone seemed to be avoiding being hit quite well at first but Marinette knew that it wouldn’t last.

At some point she realized that someone was missing.

“Chloé? Sabrina?” she  called. “Has anyone seen them?”

“They are over here, hiding behind the bleachers” answered someone from the back.

The bleachers! They could use that. There was a small space between them and the wall. Obviously they couldn’t hide the entire class but maybe a few of them could take cover there. The rest would have to stay out in the open, distracting the akuma long enough for Chat to find them. He had to be close, Marinette was sure of it. After all, it never took him too long to get to the site of the previous attacks.

Marinette made her way to the middle of their side of the court, where she could see what was happening and make herself be heard easily. The room was full of voices but she tried not to get distracted.

It was hard not to hear the akuma’s voice though. She kept talking about teaching them a lesson but it sounded like some was answering her. Intrigued, Marinette concentrated to find out whose voice it was. She was surprised when she discovered that it belonged to Adrien. She tried but couldn’t make out his words between the groans and yelps from their classmates. He didn’t look like he was having trouble avoiding the attacks so Marinette decided not to worry about it for the time being.

“Ok, I want everyone who thinks that they can’t keep this up much longer to go hide behind the benches. I need a small group to stay here with me. We’ll distract her while we figure out what else we can do” she managed to shout between ducks and jumps.

It took a while for everyone to find their places. They couldn’t just run to their hide out. The balls never stopped flying and any minor distraction could result in an injury. In the end Marinette, Adrien, Alix, Kim, Alya and Nino were the only ones left on the court. A few of their classmates were ready to change places with them whenever they felt too tired to go on.

It was nowhere near enough, and the possibility of one of them getting hurt was still too high, but it was everything Marinette could do at the moment. It was a good plan anyway, it minimized the potential casualties and maximized the room they had to move. Still, she hoped they didn’t have to stay in there for much longer. She was sure almost half an hour had passed and Chat Noir should have been about to arrive at any moment.

Once she got close enough, she discovered that Adrien had been taunting the akuma, trying to draw her attention. It worked so well that they developed a system. They took turns yelling at her, so they could have some time to recover between dodges.

So far no-one had been hurt, no-one had lost their cool. They had a good strategy. It seemed that they would be able to hold on until Chat arrived without further complications. And then, of course, she made a mistake and everything fell apart.

She waited for her turn and shouted her jab. She dodged the ball directed at her easily enough, despite its speed. Once the danger had passed, she couldn’t resist the urge to turn around, wanting to make sure that everyone was doing ok. Her back was facing the middle of the court but she felt the next ball coming anyway. She jumped to the side and managed to avoid it but lost her footing on the process. She scrambled to get up but she knew that she wouldn’t be fast enough. She got as far as kneeling when the akuma hurled her third ball at her.

She might have been too slow but Adrien wasn’t. On an instant he had dropped to his knees in front of her. Arms around her shoulders, his cheek against her cheek. She didn’t to feel the sharp impact of the ball against her body but that didn’t stop her from being thrown into the air along with him.

Her head hit the floor in the landing. Something heavy was resting on top of her and it took her a while after opening her eyes to realize that it was a very stunned Adrien.

Someone was calling their names and Marinette tried to assure them that they were alright but she wasn’t sure if she had managed to get the words out. She needed to move but she felt dizzy and didn’t think that she would make it far on her own.

Suddenly a pair of hands appeared on her field of vision and grabbed Adrien. Fear bubbled inside of her and she tried to stop them from pulling him away.

“Mari, you need to go. The others won’t keep her attention for too long.”

Marinette relaxed a little when she recognized Alya’s voice. It took her longer to let go of the boy. When she did, someone helped her to her feet and together they started walking.

They made it to the safe place behind the bleachers and Marinette crumbled to the ground the second her friends let go of her.

The room was spinning and nothing made sense, and it wasn’t just because of the hit she took to her head. A million thoughts kept running through her mind. She had to get back out here and help her class, but she wouldn’t be of any help in this state. She allowed herself five minutes. Five minutes to sort things out and pull herself together.

It was not the first time she had found herself helpless in the face of an enemy. It was not the first time that she had been too slow or too careless. It was not the first time that it had looked like there was no way out. It was not the first time that a blond boy had taken a hit for her.

Was it the first time Adrien had put himself between danger and a pigtailed girl?

She doubted so.

Was it too crazy to let a single, seemingly fortuitous event reshape her entire worldview?

Marinette remembered every hit that was meant for her but ended up hurting Chat. She couldn’t forget them, and she didn’t want to. They served as a reminder that she could never settle. She always had to do better. Because failure was not an option, not when it was his life on the line.

(Still, she wished there was a way to get rid of the nightmares.)

And she was no stranger to the feel of Chat Noir pressed against her. Personal space didn’t count for much when you had to fight magical creatures. Sure, Chat Noir had claws and leather and Marinette was usually covered in spandex but she knew her cat. She knew how his hair felt against her cheek and how tight he would hold her as he shielded her. She knew that he would never stand to the side and let someone else get hurt when he could do something to stop it.

And he had been provoking the akuma since it had first appeared. Had he used any puns on his taunts? She couldn’t remember, she had been too preoccupied with everyone’s safety to pay attention.

This was getting ridiculous. She had to find a way out of the gym, she didn’t have time to wonder about Chat’s puns. She didn’t have time to doubt herself.

So she pushed it all aside, the pain, the confusion, the worry. She stood up, waving her classmates’ concerns away and searched for Adrien. He was propped up against the wall, trying to move past a nervous Rose.

Marinette put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to stay down. He didn’t offer much resistance. He looked up at her and opened his mouth to say something but she cut him short.

“No Adrien, you don’t get to ask if I’m ok. And you don’t get to go out there again, understood?” she said sharply, holding back all the other words that were begging to leave her lips.

She didn’t stay long enough to hear his answer. Some tried to stop her from leaving their hiding place but she ignored them and made her way back to the court. She had to figure out a way to get her friends out in one piece.

After all, it was not like they could count on Ladybug and Chat Noir to save them.

**Author's Note:**

> I need this kid to stop using himself as a shield, please and thank you. Also, I'm not feeling very confident about this one so any constructive criticism is highly appreciated.


End file.
